There's an old Indian adage that goes something like this: "When a pickpocket meets a saint, all he sees are pockets." Psychologists summarize this phenomenon in three words: "Motivation affects perception." In other words, if you're hungry when driving through a town, you'll notice the restaurants. If you're running out of gas, you'll notice the gas stations. If your mother is dying, you'll notice the funeral homes.

What is the meaning of this to you?

Simply this: If you are really serious about innovating in 2008, first you will need get clear about your motivation -- what's driving you. The clearer you are, the more your efforts will be free of the hidden agendas, assumptions, and filters that limit your ability to create what you SAY you want to create.

For example, if you think your real motivation is to create a breakthrough product, but what is really driving you is the need for short term profits, you won't have the kind of patience and perseverance required to aacomplish your goal.

Metaphorically speaking, if "innovation" is the "saint" you are seeking, you don't want to be approaching it like a pickpocket.

Next month, in this space, we'll be posting a poll to explore this phenomenon more deeply. We want to find out WHY people want to innovate. To jump start this effort, we invite you NOW to tell us why YOU want to innovate in 2008. What's in it for you? Why bother? What's the payoff?

Is it survival? Is it an attempt to keep pace with the competition? A way to enjoy your job more? A calling? Your strategy to get promoted? Something else? Simply click the "comments" link and let us know.

Which reminds me of that old Woody Allen joke: This guy goes into a psychiatrist's office and, in great distress, confesses that his brother thinks he's a chicken.

And a special acknowledgment to Paul Kwiecinski for entering the contest after the polls had closed and after most of our readers thought there was no more chance to win. Paul's tenacity has earned him a free copy of the book. Perseverance furthers.

December 23, 2007Millions and Billions: The Probability of Terrestrial Life

The late science popularizer Carl Sagan once urged his readers and viewers to contemplate the millions of galaxies in the universe and consider the probability of extraterrestrial life existing somewhere outside our own planet. Today we live in a revised era, increasingly aware of humanity's impact on mothership Earth. So to shed light on our local dilemma, an innovative artist has been building a body of work that asks us to contemplate a different kind of vastness - the vastness of industrially stimulated consumerism.

Chris Jordan is a photo-montagist who creates vast wall-size panels which from a distance seem to be no more than interesting textures. Upon closer inspection though, they turn out to be created from tens of thousands of a single kind of consumable object we use and throw away: cigarettes, plastic bags, beverage bottles, aluminum cans, Vicodan tablets, cell phones. He packs these objects so tightly together that they merge into unified pointillist fields.

In one three panel set, a giant portrait of Ben Franklin turns out to be composed of 125,000 $100 bills. This number, it turns out, represents how much the United States spends each HOUR on the Iraq war - $12.5 million. Similar short clips of "consuming time" characterize most of Jordan's work: five SECONDS of plastic bags used and discarded by US Consumers (60,000 ; detail image above); a DAY's worth of cell phones discarded by US consumers (426,000, detail image below).

Because of the short time samples Jordan's montages represent, his work can convey the speed and staggering scale of industrial consumption in a way no other visualization has until now. We can grasp intuitively that these beaches of discarded goods are expanding daily, or hourly, by similar spatial units. (Four football fields of plastic bottles every five minutes. More plastic floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean than zooplankton.)

Like grains of sand on a beach, the individual objects in Jordan's images disappear. You search for a "subject" but nothing appears in the foreground. All the objects fuse into one vast background, a disorienting blur of granular overwhelm.

Then it dawns on you: YOU'RE the subject; YOU'RE the foreground. One of those plastic beverage bottles is MY water bottle. One of those cell phones is YOUR cell phone. Each one of us, easing through a supermarket checkout line on any given day, answers the question "Paper or Plastic?" WE are the subject, the foreground.

Chris Jordan creates flat backgrounds we have to place ourselves "in front of." And this helps us intuitively comprehend our interconnectedness and our impact on our LOCAL universe. Unlike Carl Sagan's CETI vision, Jordan lets us step back and contemplate the probabilities for life - not in space but HERE, on this fragile and finite planet. He asks us to consider where the superhighway to "prosperity" as we've defined it ultimately leads.

A few years ago I found myself standing in my closet, madly searching for clean clothes in a last minute attempt to pack before yet another business trip, when I noticed my 4-year old son standing in the entrance. In one hand he was holding a small plastic wand. In the other, a plastic bottle of soapy water. "Dada," he said, looking up at me -- his eyes wide open -- "do you have time to catch my bubbles?"

Time? It stopped. And so did I. At that moment it suddenly made no difference whether or not I caught my plane. (I could barely catch my breath.) The only thing that existed was him and that soulful look of longing in his eyes.

For the next ten minutes, all we did was play -- him blowing bubbles and laughing, me catching and laughing, too. His need was completely satisfied. His need for connection. His need for love. His need for knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that absolutely everything was perfect -- just the way it was.

He is 13 now. His bubbles are digital. But his need is still the same -- and so is mine. And so is yours, I would venture to say.

And so dear friends, clients, prospects, bloggers, and fellow earthlings, I wish you the happiest of holidays and a fabulous New Year. If you are busier than you want to be, I wish you stillness. If things are a little too still, I wish you more business. But no matter where you are on the continuum of life, please remember -- as my young son reminded me not that many years ago -- to take some time to catch the bubbles. Be in the moment. Enjoy the gift of life. Be grateful for every single breath, your family, and all the wonderful people who love you.

If you are one of the first five people who leave a comment in response to this blog posting, you win a free copy of Mitch Ditkoff's newly published book on what it takes to manifest bold new ideas, Awake at the Wheel. Thirty seconds of your time is all it will take -- about the time it takes to put your socks on. You see... the Idea Champions team has a little bet going on. We want to find out how many people will actually respond to this invitation.

Alright, enough context. Now's the time. Post your comment already...

Winners will be announced by Dec 31.

(PS: Idea Champions staff and family are excluded from this little contest.)

If your organization is finding it slow going cranking up its innovation machine, take a tip from the world of high tech.

Teradyne, a manufacturer of testing equipment for semiconductor chips, phone networks, and software, has found a way to cut to the chase and go beyond the internal money grubbing game that all too often drives aspiring innovators up the wall or out the door. Simply put, Teradyne funds ersatz start-ups inside the company for its best ideas. The start-ups report not to a boss, but to a Board of Directors. It has venture capital -- not a budget.

Now you're talking -- a simple way to turn "one's job" into "one's work" -- and that is the secret sauce. If you want to spark innovation, you first have to spark the innovators. And one way to do that is to treat them like entrepreneurs, not worker bees. Go beyond the command and control budget game. Give people room enough to match their excitement. Let them create a business, not just work for a business.

Idea Champions is a consulting and training company dedicated to awakening and nurturing the spirit of innovation. We help individuals, teams and entire organizations tap into their innate ability to create, develop and implement ideas that make a difference.

Authors

Storytelling at Work
Storytelling at Work is Mitch Ditkoff's newly published book about the power of personal storytelling in business – why it matters and what you and your organization can do to leverage the impact of storytelling in the workplace.

Mitch Ditkoff, the Co-Founder and President of Idea Champions, has recently been voted a top 5 speaker in the field of innovation and creativity by Speakers Platform, a leading speaker's bureau.

Workshops & Trainings
Highly engaging learning experiences
that increase each participant's ability to
become a creative force for positive change

Cultivating Innovation
Your "best and brightest" are the future leaders of your company, but unless they know how to foster a culture of innovation, their impact will be limited. A one-day workshop with us is all they need to begin this journey.

Our Blog Cabin
Our Heart of Innovation blog is a daily destination for movers and shakers everywhere — gleefully produced by our President, Mitch Ditkoff, voted "best innovation blogger in the world" two years running.

The Hero's Journey
Innovators are known for their ability to move forward. But sometimes, the best way to move forward is to retreat – especially when it's time to reinvent yourself. That's why Idea Champions is now offering 5-day immersive retreats in beautiful San Miguel de Allende. Reboot! Refresh! Renew!

Team Innovation
Innovation is a team sport. Brilliant ideas go nowhere unless your people are aligned, collaborative, and team-oriented. That doesn't happen automatically, however. It takes intention, clarity, selflessness, and a new way of operating.